So, before I could say George Orwell, I found that the European Commission has built into their infrastructure sociological, political and ethical analysis of information technology, well before it gets to the stage of broad deployment.

The European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE), chaired by the Swedish philosopher, Göran Hermerén, adopted on 16 March 2005 Opinion N° 20 on the ethical aspects of information and communication technologies (ICT) implants in the human body and presented this to the Commission. The EGE is an independent, multidisciplinary and pluralist advisory group, which is composed of twelve members. Its role is to advise the European Commission on how ethical values should be taken into consideration in the regulation of scientific and technological developments.

“World Community Grid’s mission is to create the largest public computing grid benefiting humanity.” Projects include the Human Proteome Project, mapping the proteins made from the genes mapped by the Human Genome Project. Partners donating computing resources include IBM and the Semiconductor Industry Association.

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/

Grid.org is a single destination site for large-scale, non-profit research projects of global significance.

www.grid.org

“DIMES is a distributed scientific research project, aimed to study the structure and topology of the Internet, with the help of a volunteer community (similar in spirit to projects such as SETI@Home). The DIMES project is part of EVERGROW – a research consortium comprising more then 20 universities and research institutes from various countries. The DIMES headquarters are situated in Tel-Aviv University ‘s EE-Systems department.”

A selection of prosthetics sites. These prosthetics are controlled entirely by connection to the residual limb muscles of individuals who have undergone amputation. The prosthetic limbs use a combination of hydraulics, processors, and sensors to transmit information back up through the limb muscles to enable walking, running and other activities. (I love the applet on the Hanger site showing a man dancing, quite stylishly thank you, with a prosthetic leg. These individuals in turn are the most likely to explore the frontier of neural prosthetics when that technology is ready to, if you will, take the next step.

Liberating Technologies:

http://www.liberatingtech.com/products/LTI_Boston_Arm_Systems.asp

Hanger Orthopedic Group

http://www.hanger.com/

C-Leg microprocessor-controlled knee

http://www.ottobockus.com/products/lower_limb_prosthetics/c-leg.asp

For the human element, here’s the personal site of Cameron Clapp, a triple-amputee after being hit by a train. I challenge you not to be inspired.

Neurosphere

The Neurosphere Institute is a non-profit organization organized around the long-term trend of an interconnected human population. Such interconnection is leveraging technology developments in the Internet, social media, and the emerging Brain Computer Interface (BCI) segment. Metaphorical connections are becoming literal.

Institute President Don Dulchinos is an experienced technology industry executive, and is currently focused on consulting in the BCI industry.